This subproject is one of many research subprojects utilizing the resources provided by a Center grant funded by NIH/NCRR. The subproject and investigator (PI) may have received primary funding from another NIH source, and thus could be represented in other CRISP entries. The institution listed is for the Center, which is not necessarily the institution for the investigator. Delaware INBRE Annual Progress Report (APR) 2008 Grant No. 5P20RR016472-07 Administrative Core Report Core Objective: The Administrative Core provides statewide leadership and coordination of the program activities among the partner institutions. Dr. David S. Weir, INBRE PI and Dr. Karl V. Steiner, INBRE Program Coordinator, who are also Director and Associate Director of the Delaware Biotechnology Institute (DBI), lead the Delaware INBRE Administrative Core. Institutional leaders at the Dean/Director level at each of the partner institutions participate in the Administrative Core. Accomplishments of the Administrative Core in the INBRE Year 4 include: Support for the smooth operation of all INBRE Cores: 1) Research Core: to support junior and early career faculty in mentored biomedical research;deliver over the five-year term of the grant, a statewide pipeline of capable and competitive medical research personnel who can compete for and win NIH-funded research grants. 2) Centralized Research Instrumentation Core: to extend the infrastructure of centralized instrumentation centers that were established under the Delaware BRIN;provide the State's research community with the necessary tools to successfully compete for federally funded research grants. 3) Research Experience and Training Core: to develop a capability to improve the scientific literacy and research experience of undergraduate students as a component of the overall INBRE goal;to improve the expertise of nursing faculty in research and grantsmanship. 4) Outreach Core: to increase the scientific research literacy of undergraduate and associate-level students at the INBRE partner institutions;to develop a workforce training/retraining programs for the biomedical sector. 5) Administrative Core: to administer the INBRE network toward a sustainable biomedical research capability;to collaborate with partner institutions on improving capacity aligned with institutional priorities;to work closely with State government to assure the INBRE goals are aligned with State priorities. This support and leadership led to the following accomplishments: 1) The INBRE program has facilitated the development of a healthy and constructive partnership of equals among the participating institutions. In January '07 the AAAS External Review Panel provided the following assessment: + "In general, the panel found a well-functioning program that has built and sustains a multidisciplinary network across the state of Delaware. One of the greatest strengths of the program continues to be the leadership at DBI, and the resources (equipment and people) at DBI are second to none. It is obvious that the goals of the INBRE are supported at all levels across the state [unreadable]from the governor's office to each individual participating campus." 2) The Delaware Science &Technology Council, established in June 2006 by Executive Order of the Governor and chaired by the Lt. Governor, is comprised of leaders of industry, academia, and state government across the State of Delaware. The Council's Human Health Subcommittee is charged with generating a strategic plan to build a research and science-based human health capacity in the State. The initial focus of this effort has been on building a research program in cancer. + Through the S&T Council, secured recurring funding from the State in the amount of $360k to support an inter-institutional translational research effort in cancer. + In October 2007, the S&T Council endorsed the proposal to focus the next INBRE program on two areas: (1) continue to support the cancer initiative toward sustainability and (2) establish a statewide Cardiovascular Research capability, following the collaborative model established for cancer research. 3) Supported a total of 28 seed research projects across the network since 2004, with sixteen at UD, seven at DSU, three at Wesley College, one at Christiana Care, and one at Nemours. Delaware INBRE currently supports thirteen projects from across the network. Since 2004, INBRE-supported UD faculty and their collaborators have secured $6,476,184 in additional research funding from federal sources including NIH, NSF, DOD, and CDC). The total community of INBRE-funded researchers and their collaborators were awarded a total of $7,467,079 during the period 2004-2007. + According to data available in the Web of Science, total UD faculty publications in biomedical journals have increased slightly over the past seven years, from about 480 in 2000 to 510 in 2006. However, the impact of these UD publications has risen dramatically over the same time period;in 2000, UD faculty articles in biomedical publications were cited about 10,000 times, while they were cited almost 16,000 times in 2006. + INBRE hosted its first annual Research Forum in June 2007, bringing together faculty and students in an informal setting for an extended poster session to discuss their research projects and explore opportunities for expanded collaborations across the network. About 50 researchers attended the Forum, and a Poster Book featuring the posters and short descriptions of the abstracts, goals, approaches and results, was prepared and distributed at the event. + Since 2004, DBI has hosted a weekly luncheon seminar series, featuring graduate students and postdocs in the spring semester and new faculty in the network in the fall semester. The fall 2007 seminar series includes speakers from DSU, Wesley, Christiana Care, Nemours and UD. The seminars are video-streamed live and captured for later viewing since the installation of an INBRE-supported capability in early 2006. Today, 33 lectures are posted for viewing on-line. www.dbi.udel.edu/events/luncheons.html 4) The INBRE program has contributed significantly to the development of a successful, statewide biomedical research capability with a strong initial focus on cancer research. This collaborative and very successful model will serve as the basis for the next focus of the INBRE program. + INBRE supported the formation of the Center for Translational Cancer Research (CTCR) as part of the statewide initiative to develop a biomedical research capability in Delaware. The CTCR, under the leadership of an INBRE-supported faculty member, Cindy Farach-Carson, is comprised of faculty and clinical staff at UD, DBI, Nemours, and the Helen F. Graham Cancer Center at Christiana Care. www.udel.edu/ctcr/ + DBI collaborated closely with Christiana Care's Helen F. Graham Cancer Center on the successful bid to be recognized as one of the initial 14 NCI Community Cancer Centers Programs (NCCCP) selected by the National Cancer Institute (NCI) for a three-year pilot phase with a view to begin rolling out the program nationwide in 2010. The NCCCP pilot focuses on: (1) Expanding clinical trials, especially in minority communities;(2) Reducing disparities in cancer health care;(3) Collecting, storing and sharing tissue and blood samples for research;and (4) Exploring the use of a national database of electronic medical records. www.christianacare.org/body.cfm?id=8 + INBRE researchers are active participants in the semi-annual translational cancer meeting series at the Graham Cancer Center, where scientists and physicians meet to discuss research updates on translational cancer research. The group includes researchers from UD, Christiana Care, and Nemours, as well as regional researchers, from Philadelphia's Kimmel Cancer Center (Jefferson Medical College) and Fox Chase Cancer Center. + DBI collaborated in the establishment of a new pediatric cancer research program at Alfred I. duPont Hospital for Children (Nemours). The Nemours Center for Childhood Cancer Research represents a $4 million investment in laboratories, equipment and salaries by the Nemours Foundation. After a nationwide search, Nemours hired Drs. Ayyappan and Sigrid Rajasekaran from UCLA as Director and Head of its cell therapies research laboratory, respectively. In June 2007, Nemours hosted a gala and raised $250,000 to support the new Nemours Center for Childhood Cancer Research. 5) Progress has been made at several INBRE partner institutions to position Delaware to develop a second biomedical research focus in cardiovascular research: + The University of Delaware has selected Dr. Ulhas Naik, Professor of Biological Sciences to lead a new effort to establish a Cardiovascular Research Center. UD has committed several faculty lines to grow this initiative. + We have reconstituted the Research Committee to position Delaware to meet the challenges of the future INBRE focus area. Dr. Ulhas Naik has agreed to serve as the new Chair of the INBRE Research Committee. Other members are leaders of Delaware's NIH-supported COBRE centers, academic leaders from Delaware's institutions, and medical experts with strong backgrounds in cardiovascular research. + Christiana Care has attracted Dr. William Weintraub in late 2004 to head the Christiana Center for Outcomes Research. Dr. Weintraub is also the Chief of Cardiology at Christiana Care who has led the recruitment of Dr. Mitchell Saltzberg, a heart failure researcher and Dr. Marci Drees, an infectious disease specialist and plans further recruitment in outcomes research and cardiovascular disease. In addition, Dr. Timothy Gardner, Medical Director for the Center for Heart and Vascular Health, is currently serving as President of the American Heart Association, adding to Delaware reputation and position on the national scene in this field. + Nemours has recently completed the recruitment of Dr. Sam Gidding as pediatric cardiologist within its newly established Cardiac Center. + It appears that the cardiovascular activities at many of the partner institutions in Delaware are already further developed than the cancer activities were when the INBRE was launched in 2004. 6) Continued to develop the capability and evaluate the effectiveness of the Core Instrumentation Centers. Since 2006, the Core Centers increased utilization between 10% and 26%. Specific details on the Core Centers are provided in a separate document. Since the establishment of the INBRE program in 2004, we have invested over $4 Million into upgrading instrumentation in the Core Instrumentation Centers. In 2007 alone, we invested about $2M into Core Instrumentation Centers, with about $200k provided by INBRE, and significant support from other sources, including the NSF-EPSCoR program ($600k), the University of Delaware ($290k), the Unidel Foundation ($875k) and a grant from the Department of Energy ($358k). + INBRE partners successfully competed for an INBRE Administrative Supplement focused on Cyberinfrastructure in September 2007. Total award was $160,000, with $100,000 for DSU to improve connectivity in the Mishoe Science Building and $60,000 to install a high memory machine in the BioIT Center at DBI. This grant was made possible through DBI's leadership in creating a Northeast Network Initiative (NENI), with Maine, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, Vermont and Delaware as partners in an effort to improve Cyberinfrastructure on a regional level. Karl Steiner serves as the lead for the NENI initiative and organized a cyberinfrastructure workshop in August 2007 at the regional IDeA meeting in Burlington, VT, which led to the submission of Administrative Supplement proposals to NIH. 7) Since 2005, a total of 93 INBRE-funded undergraduate students were involved in biomedically-relevant research projects through the summer undergraduate internship program. The group included 55% women, and 22% black and Hispanic students. In 2007, a cohort of 22 students participated in the summer internships, with students conducting research at each of the INBRE partner institutions. Emphasis continues to involve a diverse student group. The 2007 group included 54% women and 23% underrepresented minority students, and involved more than 30 faculty members at all Delaware INBRE partner institutions. INBRE undergraduate researchers present their research at an end of summer research symposium organized in collaboration with the HHMI undergraduate research program at the University of Delaware. In summer 2007, more than 150 undergraduates presented their research in talks and poster sessions. Undergraduates involved are highlighted on the Howard Hughes Medical Institute website at UD, at http://www.udel.edu/chem/white/HHMI3/Summer07/S07symposium.html. INBRE's predecessor project, the Delaware Biomedical Research Infrastructure Network, or BRIN, also funded 19 undergraduate researchers, during the summers of 2002-2004. The majority of students are still undergraduates;however, there are growing numbers of students continuing their educations in medical and dental school, MD-PhD programs, pharmacy and veterinary programs, and MS programs in nursing and biotechnology. Mary Beth Stant-Boggs, a former Wesley College student, will complete her PhD in biochemistry at the University of Delaware about 2009, and will be the first PhD from the BRIN-INBRE undergraduate cohort. Several students have chosen to enter the workplace, and have jobs at Hercules, Kimberly-Clark, WL Gore, and Merck. 8) Developed a comprehensive evaluation process involving semi-annual research briefings for the Delaware INBRE External Advisory Board, bi-annual site visits by the AAAS-led External Review Panel, and a continuous, internal evaluation process conducted by the University of Delaware's Education Research and Development Center. The evaluation process takes advantage of a detailed online user interface and evaluation database. + Began data collection and analysis related to a major effort to evaluate the growth of collaborative research networks and the relationship between patterns of collaboration and research productivity in DE INBRE. Using an approach called social network analysis, this aspect of the evaluation will track the growth of research collaborations over time, as well as the distribution of collaborations within and across Delaware INBRE partner institutions. 9) Provided guidance and leadership to the INBRE participants toward successful implementation of program goals. Assured that program objectives of all six INBRE Cores were met. Coordinated and oversaw financial and program management. + In February 2007, DSU received a 3-year NSF Research Experiences for Undergraduates (REU) grant focused on research experiences in molecular genetics &genomics. The 3-year project will support nine-week summer experiences for approximately 10 students every year. In summer 2007, 9 students (6 females;5 African-Americans) from DTCC, DSU and Wesley, and Salisbury University participated. + In August 2007, Delaware Tech was awarded an NSF Advanced Technology Education (ATE) grant, "Taking Delaware's Biotechnology Program to the Next Level", funded at $499,000 for three years. This grant will implement an Introduction to Research course at the community college level. + INBRE supported the establishment of a new joint Biological Chemistry Course between DSU and Wesley in August 2007. Students will take three courses at DSU in addition to their current coursework at Wesley. This is the first such inter-institutional agreement for a joint degree program between these two INBRE partner institutions. The INBRE program is prominently featured in the agreement. + DBI collaborated with Wesley on development of a recruiting approach to help attract more students into the Wesley science programs. A brochure outlining the collaboration between Wesley and DBI was designed and issued in Fall 2007. 10) Contributed to the doubling of NIH funding to the State of Delaware since the beginning of the BRIN/INBRE program in 2001;from $14.9 Million in 2000 to $28.9 Million in 2007.